Ants
Ants and Ground-Floor Apartments in Friern Barnet
Black garden ants like warm, well-drained soil, and the sand under paths and paving suits them well. Where grounds are laid right up to a building, colonies can sit close to the wall of a ground-floor apartment, and workers looking for food follow the foot of the wall until they find a way in. They seldom reach the upper floors of a large building, so the ground floor is where the trails appear. Why ants keep coming into the kitchen explains what a ground-floor worktop offers them.
Old openings in thick walls
In a converted building, the ground-floor doors and windows sit in openings through deep masonry, often with new frames fitted into old brick or stone. Where the joint between frame and wall has shrunk or cracked, ants have a way through, and air vents and pipe entries low on the wall can do the same. If the trail runs along a windowsill or the threshold of a patio door, that is the place to look outside.
Houses on the surrounding streets
Houses along Friern Barnet Lane and Colney Hatch Lane get their ants from patios, paths and lawns, with the back door or a kitchen extension as the way in.
Flying Ants Round the Buildings
On a few warm, humid days in summer, colonies release their winged ants all at once. Around a big building they can pour out of a crack in a path or the joint at the base of a wall and collect at the windows. It is brief, and it shows you where a nest is. The flying ants guide explains what the swarm tells you about the colony. Winged insects using one gap day after day for weeks are more likely a wasp nest.
Garden Ants or Pharaoh Ants?
Pharaoh ants are tiny, pale yellowish-brown ants that nest indoors in warm buildings and can travel along heating and service runs. They are rare, but a large heated building is the kind of place they can turn up, on any floor rather than just the ground. They matter because shop sprays can make their colonies split and spread. If the ants are very small and pale and appear upstairs, read Pharaoh ants vs garden ants and mention it when you book. Small insects in the kitchen at night could instead be cockroaches.
Before and After a Visit
- Tell us your floor and where the trail comes in: door, window, vent or floor
- If you can, follow the trail outside and note where it goes into the ground
- Stop spraying the trail so the ants are still visible, and wipe worktops with soapy water
- Keep food and pet bowls sealed or lifted off the floor
When you book ant control, mention whether the apartment has its own patio or garden area and whether neighbours along the ground floor have ants too. Some ants may be about for a while after the visit, depending on the size and position of the colony, and how long ant treatment takes covers this. Get back in touch if activity has not dropped off.
Keeping Ants Out
Fill cracks where window and door frames meet the wall, keep planting and mulch a little way back from the building, and do not leave sweet drinks or fruit near a ground-floor window. Work to the grounds and the outside walls is normally for the managing agent to arrange. How to stop ants getting in has more, and ants in the rest of the borough are covered on Ant Control Barnet.
